by Donald Bogle
490 “Her climaxing numbers received”: Edwin Schallert, “Sepia Star Welcomed at Mayan,” Los Angeles Times, April 7, 1945, 15.
491 “There will be no”: Sheila Guys, “ ‘The Wishing Tree’ Takes Shape; Notes on ‘Carmen,’ ” Amsterdam News, April 7, 1945, 7B.
492 “We girls were supposed”: Eartha Kitt, Confessions of a Sex Kitten (New York: Barricade Books, 1959), 44.
493 “Vaudeville should have pace”: Lewis Nichols, “The Play,” New York Times, May 22, 1945, 13.
494 “repetitive and rather dull”: Howard Barnes, “The Theater: Ethel Waters, Bill Robinson, Come to Town,” New York Herald Tribune, May 27, 1945, CF.
495 “Needless to say, the”: Kitt, Confessions of a Sex Kitten, 44.
496 “The interesting thing about”: “Billy Rowe’s Note Book,” Amsterdam News, June 9, 1945, 21.
497 “A rash of Negro”: Arthur Bronson, “Harlem’s Prospects for Broadway Set with Question Mark,” Variety, Reprinted in Chicago Defender, July 14, 1945, 14.
498 “I thought I was”: Earl Wilson, “It Happened Last Night,” New York Post, December 28, 1945, 16.
499 “175 pounds of her”: Billy Rowe, “Ethel Waters Wins Acclaim in Chicago,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 9, 1946, 18.
500 “The court is of”: “Negro Owners Win Contest on Occupancy,” Los Angeles Times, December 7, 1945, A1.
501 “I had heard many”: Leonard Feather, “More Than Blues: Remembering Ethel Waters,” Los Angeles Times, September 3, 1977, B9.
502 “It’s like this, Pal”: Taylor with Cook, Alberta Hunter: A Celebration in Blues, 177.
503 “Many nights I’d eat”: Waters with Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 263.
504 “I was raised on”: Hank O’Neal, Ghosts of Harlem: Sessions with Jazz Legends (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt Press, 2009).
505 “Mom has often checked”: Hilda See, “Critic Finds Ethel Waters’ Style a ‘Natural’ Employed by Many Stars,” Chicago Defender, June 14, 1947, 18.
506 “Ethel Waters, who is”: “Billy Rowe’s Note Book,” Pittsburgh Courier, January 4, 1947, 16.
507 “Ethel Waters sitting quietly”: Bill Chase, “All Ears,” Amsterdam News, September 27, 1947, 8.
508 “I condemn and decry”: Venice T. Spraggs, “Theatres May Shut as Actors Join Boycott,” Chicago Defender, February 1, 1947, 1.
509 “Owen turned away hundreds”: Evan Rodgers, “Ethel Waters at Brennan’s,” New Orleans Item, November 4, 1947, CF.
510 “Popular music was raised”: “Ethel Waters’ Song Program Delights,” Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1948, p 21.
511 “Everybody got screened before”: McCrary and Falkenburg, “New York Close-up,” New York Herald Tribune, November 16, 1949, CF.
512 “I didn’t have the”: Boston Globe, April 1, 1951, CF.
513 “When he indicated the”: Kazan, A Life, 374.
514 “Ford’s Negroes were like”: Mel Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking: A Biography of Darryl F. Zanuck (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971), 151.
515 “I’ve never been higher”: Kazan, A Life, 373.
516 “It was a professional”: Gussow, Don’t Say Yes Until I Finish Talking, 374.
517 “He hated that old”: Kazan, A Life, 374.
518 “living this part”: Harry Levette, “Gossip of Movie Lots,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 24, 1949, 12.
519 “My most vivid memory”: Kazan, A Life, 376.
520 “dirty play”: Virginia Spencer Carr, The Lonely Hunter: A Biography of Carson McCullers (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975), 330.
521 “I don’t drink”: Vernon Rice, “Curtain Cues,” New York Post, January 4, 1950, CF.
522 “What’s your play all”: Carr, The Lonely Hunter, 332.
523 “There seems to be”: Ibid., 331.
524 “Every night I get”: Mel Gussow, “Robert Whitehead, Who Brought Top Playwrights to Broadway, Dies at 86,” New York Times, June 17, 2002, B6.
525 “I was lookin’ for”: Rice, “Curtain Cues,” New York Post, January 4, 1950, np.
526 “Our first meeting”: Twila Knaack, I Touched a Sparrow (Minneapolis, MN: World Wide Publications, 1978), 133.
527 “I have never in”: Walter White, “Regrets He Has No Words of Praise For Pinky,” Chicago Defender, October 29, 1949, 7.
528 “the film proffers”: Edwin Schallert, “ ‘Pinky Fascinates as Race-Issue Film,” Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1949, 13.
529 “Darryl Zanuck hit the”: “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” Los Angeles Times, October 6, 1949, A6.
530 “An Approach to Racism”: Philip Dunne, New York Times, May 1, 1949.
531 “And yet, despite the”: Ralph Ellison, Shadow and Act (New York: Signet, 1966), 270.
532 “You never know what”: “ ‘Ma’ Waters in Good Mood as She Arrives in N.Y.,” Philadelphia Tribune, October 8, 1949, 9.
533 “People don’t seem to”: McCrary and Falkenburg, “New York Close-up,” New York Herald Tribune, November 16, 1949, CL.
534 “Attendance records for a”: “ ‘Pinky’ Hit in New York,” Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1949, B8.
535 “depicted a white man”: “High Court Ends Another Film Ban; Cites ‘Miracle’ View in ‘Pinky’ Case,” Chicago Defender, February 16, 1952, 34.
536 “His way of telling”: Waters and Samuels, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, 274.
537 “strange person”: Edited by Marjorie Loggia and Glenn Young, The Collected Works of Harold Clurman: Six Decades of Commentary on Theatre, Dance, Music, Film Arts, Letters, and Politics (New York: Applause Books, 1994), 979.
538 “training a bear”: Carr, The Lonely Hunter, 334.
539 “Now, honey, I don’t”: Ibid.
540 “I sang it for”: Henry Hewes, “Ethel Waters and a Hymn,” New York Times, CF.
541 “The hymn brought more”: Susan Buckingham, “Ethel Waters Gives Credit for Success to Granny’s Hymn,” Philadelphia Tribune, July 25, 1950, 12.
542 “put a package of”: Author interview with James Sheldon.
543 “All the play is”: David Bongard, “Miss Waters Says She’s Through,” Los Angeles Daily News, December 20, 1951, CF.
544 “I got on my”: Vernon Rice, “Curtain Cues,” New York Post, January 4, 1950, CF.
545 “In Philadelphia, where we”: Julie Harris, “He Was a Golden, Loving Child,” New York Times, August 6, 1972, D1.
546 “She had a great”: Loggia and Young, The Collected Works of Harold Clurman, 979.
547 “Miss Waters, Brandon, and”: Harris, “He Was a Golden, Loving Child,” New York Times, August 6, 1972, D1.
548 “Honey, I’m not from”: Carr, The Lonely Hunter, 335.
549 “Ethel Waters is a”: Henry T. Murdock, “McCullers’ ‘Member of Wedding’ Bows at Walnut,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 23, 1949, CF.
550 “I was just saturating”: Author interview with Martha Orrick.
551 “I remember how she”: Author interview with Emery Wimbish. All comments by Wimbish in this chapter are from this interview.
552 “Miss Waters gives one”: Brooks Atkinson, “At the Theatre,” New York Times, January 6, 1950, 26.
553 “Ethel Waters, a distinguished”: Richard Watts, New York Post, CF.
554 “Miss Waters is giving”: John Chapman, “ ‘Member of the Wedding’ and Its Cast Earn Cheers at the Empire,” New York Daily News, January 6, 1950, CF.
555 “their regular dinner spot”: Allan McMillan, “Allan’s Alley,” Amsterdam News, January 28, 1950, 14.
556 “Every day but matinee”: Cyrus Durgin, “His Eye Has Been upon Ethel Waters, Who Lives by Faith,” Boston Globe, April 1, 1951, CF.
557 “All day long I’m”: “ ‘Keep Gong Forward’—Ethel’s Key to Fame,” Chicago Defender, October 21, 1950, 20.
558 “When I worked with”: Author interview with Leslie Uggams. Other comments by Uggams in this chapter are from this interview.
559 “the candy-
coated stereotype”: John Crosby, “Radio and Television,” New York Herald Tribune, April 29, 1951, CF.
560 “defiles and desecrates colored”: Joseph Bibb, “ ‘Beulah’ Flayed,” Pittsburgh Courier, May 19, 1951, 21.
561 “What’s uplifting or educational”: S. W. Garlington, “Amusement Row,” Amsterdam News, March 3, 1951, 23.
562 “The writers”: “Bud Harris Tells Chicago Defender Why He Quit ‘Beulah,’ ” Chicago Defender, November 25, 1950, 21.
563 “I like being Beulah”: “ ‘Keep Going Forward’—Ethel’s Key to Fame,” Chicago Defender, October 21, 1950, 20.
564 “The day the book”: Marie Torre, “It’s Nice to Be Myself Again,” New World Telegram, June 23, 1951, np.
565 “It is no book”: Harvey Breit, “Talk with Ethel Waters,” New York Times, March 18, 1951, CF.
566 “The SIGNATURES OF ETHEL WATERS”: Floretta Howard, Introduction to Unpublished Letters of Ethel Waters.
567 “tending to overplay her”: Carr, The Lonely Hunter, 367.
568 “remarkable, of course, in”: Ibid., 348.
569 “began to ‘improve’ it”: Ibid., 368.
570 “This is a great”: Loggia and Young, The Collected Works of Harold Clurman, 979.
571 “Miss Waters became angry”: Carr, The Lonely Hunter, 369.
572 “the colored people turned”: Philip K. Scheuer, “Ethel Waters Weary, but Goes On and On,” Los Angeles Times, December 9, 1951, E3.
573 “No, I don’t want”: Bongard, “Miss Waters Says She’s Through,” Los Angeles Daily News, December 20, 1951, np.
574 “Yes, I’ll retire. . . . for”: Hazel Garland, “Ethel Waters to Retire for a While; Here for ‘Member of the Wedding,’ ” Pittsburgh Courier, March 22, 1952, 24.
575 “Right now”: “Ethel Waters May Leave Theatre,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 8, 1952, 12.
576 “were film stars, their”: Stanley Kramer with Thomas M. Coffrey, A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997), 100.
577 “difficulties of directing”: Ibid., 101.
578 “Ethel was a wonderful”: Guy Flatley, “At the Movies,” New York Times, September 30, 1977, CF.
579 “clung to the play”: Carr, The Lonely Hunter, 333.
580 “Zinnemann was praised for”: Kramer with Coffrey, A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, 101.
581 “There are two glorious”: “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,” Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1953, 20.
582 “Miss Waters, that dramatic”: Harry Levett, “This Is Hollywood,” Chicago Defender, January 3, 1953, 22.
583 “Miss Waters is one”: Philip K. Scheuer, “Gifted Three Re-enact ‘Member of Wedding,’ ” Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1952, A12.
584 “Ethel Waters’ performance of”: Bosley Crowther, “The Screen in Review,” New York Times, December 31, 1952, 10.
585 “a remarkable film”: Pauline Kael, “The Member of the Wedding,” 5001 Nights at the Movies (New York: Henry Holt, 1991), 474.
586 “never recovered from the”: Rex Reed, “ ‘Frankie Addams’ at 50,” New York Times, April 16, 1967, CF.
587 “The studio”: Author interview with Orin Borsten.
588 “Do you know why”: “Ethel Reminds Kids: ‘I’m Hip,’ ” Down Beat, March 25, 1953, CF.
589 “the majestic”: Wein and Chinen, Myself Among Others, 95.
590 “Ethel Waters, who through”: Henry Hewes, “The Empire—From ‘Strawberries’ to ‘Ravioli,’ ” Saturday Review, June 13, 1953, 28.
591 “Whenever she would perform”: Author interview with Leslie Uggams.
592 “[nothing this season] ever”: Whitney Bolton, “Ethel Waters Is Magnificent in Two-Hour Festival of Song,” Morning Telegraph, July 1, 1953, CF.
593 “No matter that the”: Walter Kerr, “Broadway in Review,” Los Angeles Times, September 27, 1953, D2.
594 “We kept doing the”: Author interview with Ruby Dee. Other comments by Ruby Dee in this chapter are from the same interview.
595 “at a slow, easy”: “Manhattan Scene,” Chicago Defender, November 12, 1955, 2.
596 “I’ve got to get”: Cicely Tyson in conversation with the author.
597 “used all kinds of”: Anonymous interview with the author.
598 “The plot is nothing”: Clyde Reid, “ ‘Carib Gold’ Has Beautiful Photography, Nothing More,” Amsterdam News, April 21, 1956, 15.
599 “They’re trying to desecrate”: ‘Ethel Waters Blasts Rock ’n’ Roll Singing of Religious Songs,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 29, 1956.
600 “Are you a member”: Delores Calvin, “Ethel Waters Finds NAACP Bias Problem Is Not Hers,” Chicago Defender, January 5, 1957, 15.
601 “Although she’s in a”: “Pulse of the Public,” Amsterdam News, January 12, 1957, 14.
602 “Things must be getting”: “The People Speak,” Chicago Defender, September 23, 1957, 11.
603 “Ethel Waters—still great”: Chicago Defender, November 1, 1958, 19.
604 Mrs. Uncle Tom: Al Monroe, “So They Say,” Chicago Defender, October 22, 1958, A18.
605 “One of the greatest”: “Eye to Eye,” Amsterdam News, January 25, 1958, 9.
606 “I am unemployed”: “ ‘Stormy Weather’ Has Waters Singing ‘Blues,’ ” Journal [American], January 3, 1957, CF. Unless otherwise indicated, the comments that follow are also from this interview.
607 “It’s true. I’m completely”: Joseph Kahn, “Broke—But All Ethel Waters Wants Is a Job,” New York Post, January 2, 1957, 4.
608 “People called me up”: Helen Dudar, “Ethel Waters ISN’T Broke—for Friends,” New York Post, January 4, 1957, CF.
609 “I have to earn”: James L. Kilgallen, “Ethel Waters Plagued by Tax Troubles, Too,” Chicago Defender, January 12, 1957, 9.
610 “lies and liars”: Evelyn Cunningham, “ ‘All Lies . . . I’m Not Broke’—Ethel Waters,” Pittsburgh Courier, January 19, 1957, 9. Unless otherwise indicated, the comments that follow are from this article.
611 “Why has Ethel Waters”: Hazel A. Washington, “This Is HOLLYWOOD,” Chicago Defender, February 5, 1957, 7.
612 “blackballed her due to”: Masco Young, “The Grapevine,” Pittsburgh Courier, April 10, 1957, A7.
613 “I wish some of”: Langston Hughes, “Week by Week,” Chicago Defender, May 25, 1957, 10.
614 “The Garden’s not only”: Ethel Waters, To Me It’s Wonderful (New York: Harper and Row. 1972), 21.
615 “We were shown the”: Ibid., 22.
616 “I couldn’t tell you”: Ibid., 25.